Seriously?

Have you seen this video of the 72-year old woman being tasered?



Ok, so she was a little on the ornery side--but seriously, you need to taser a 72-year-old woman in order to control her?

This comes right after a Flagstaff man was killed after being tasered in Utah. Can't we teach cops some better form of self-defense? How about judo?

Whoa nellie

Wow, I just realized its been over a month since my last blog (bloggers anonymous intro?)

Ok so I would never qualify for bloggers anonymous since I have been anything but regular.

Perhaps I should just give it up.

What I've been doing instead of blogging...

working--yes my work life has gotten a bit busier. Did a field trip in early April and have been desperately trying to get a final report out the door. Just when the weather is getting beautiful--I'm trying to write a report. Not a great combination.

working--ok this deserves two entries because we are also working on a HUGE proposal at work. This one would ease my worries about losing my job every few months or so--but it is kind of a scary prospect.

remodeling--we have finally picked out kitchen cabinets after an eternity of interviewing people and drawing in Google Sketch Up. Now we have to bust our butts trying to get the kitchen ready for its new tenants.

gardening--my little seedlings are doing ok. Every time I put them outside to "harden" them and prepare them for the garden--they get fried in the sun :(. I haven't given up. We made a new herb garden the other day--but I don't want to get my hopes up about it's success.

climbing--sort of. We've been trying to go to the gym lately and we actually went out to Paradise Forks this weekend. Its nice to have hobbies that don't involve toxic chemicals.

running--yeah! I've been trying to start running again. I used to be a fanatic, but for some reason stopped when I came to Flagstaff. My knees don't like it, but I'm trying to ease my way back in.

hosting couchsurfers--this actually takes a lot of time. We've met some really cool folks--but sometimes I do have to wonder where all my free time has gone?

Politics

Not people politics--dog politics.

I've been thinking recently about how different a dog's sense of personal space is than ours.

Dogs that are total strangers will sniff and lick each others a holes and other private parts.
but if I call one of my mutts to come to me--and the other is in the way, she will just whine, wag her tail, and look at me--but will not bother the other one. I guess there's no "excuse me" in dog language.

My dog, Rizo, is obsessed with the frisbee--she brings it with her everywhere she goes. She often pees on it or lets my other dog, Jeckyll pee on it. She'll still pick it up--sometimes like a bowl of pee--and bring it to me to throw. Eeeewww.
yet if another dog comes near her dog dish--forget it

I find this fascinating.

Parking

I noticed this phenomenon this morning and wonder if anyone else has noticed the same.

Men are obsessed with backing into parking spots. Women just seem to be fine pulling in and then backing out--but men, perhaps with the notion that they will have to escape in a hurry, want to reverse into the spot so they can pull straight out.

I've noticed it with Isaac and I've noticed it at work. The small building in which I work houses our office, a male contractor, a male lawyer, a female CPA, and a group of female consultants of some type. My boss and the contractor both will go to great lengths to back into their parking spots. All of the women pull in forward as does the lawyer.

Is it a male ego thing? A "manly man" thing? The lawyer doesn't seem to mind being lumped in with us women--hell he's probably making more money than the rest of us combined. I think its a mystery that should be explored.

Happy Anniversary

Twenty years ago today, a drunk sailor crashed his oil tanker in the Prince William Sound spilling 10.8 million gallons of oil ruining and ending the lives of native man and beast. Recent scientific studies conducted by the Exxon Valdez trust indicate that the oil is still present--an estimated 16,000 gallons are still buried--and the herring, a keystone species for the Sound, have not recovered.

Last year, the supreme court cut the damages due the local fisherman from the massive corporation. Original punitive damages amounted to approximately 1-year's profit for the behemoth--the new amount doesn't even cover the costs of bankruptcy lawyers for the fisherman who lost their livelihood.

Happy Anniversary Exxon--you thoroughly screwed us on that one!

Not Very Stimulated

I'm not very impressed with what I've seen of the new "stimulus package." I think something is wrong with me because I actually agree with some Republicans. This might be the first time in my adult life that I can say that.

I appreciate the need to help the "down and out" in society--but this housing rescue package really stimulates me...to be angry.

Let's take a bunch of people who have demonstrated their inability to manage money (many of the folks currently in foreclosure)

and give them more money.

In addition lets tell folks who don't have enough money or don't have the desire to buy a home that we will give them a $7500 "incentive". How exactly will this help? So all of a sudden people who couldn't afford a home (because the incentive is only for first time home buyers) will be able to afford one with $7500? Won't that just give people a false sense of what they can afford? Isn't that what got us into this mess in the first place? I recognize that we need for people to buy homes--but I thought the Republican plan of a fixed rate 4.0% loan either for purchase or refinance was pretty darn enticing. That's giving long-term savings--and not just rewarding those in foreclosure. I wouldn't mind a little stimulation.

Evolution

I was just thinking about the George Bush Segway incident --and found this video. This has got to be one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. This one's for you Charles Darwin!

Potsie Scheme

For some reason, while listening to NPR once again mention the Ponzi scheme executed by Bernard Madoff, I started to wonder why that name, Ponzi, always makes me laugh.

Flashback--about 25 years ago (maybe more--ok, yeah more). I am the youngest of 5 children. The breakdown is as follows: Marie Anne, Paul, Hugh, Chris, and me--baby Rita (nickie to my family). My brothers and I used to play little make-believe games most likely to keep Chris and Hugh from killing each other. One of our favorites was to play "Happy Days".

Paul was always Fonzi--always. You might think that I played the part of Joanie--but no, that would make too much sense. As a little tomboy I was usually Spike--and sometimes Chachi. Who's Spike? Spike was Fonzi's cousin--before Chachi got introduced to the show. Think of Spike as a miniature Fonzi--complete with leather jacket.

Chris and Hugh alternated between Richie, Ralph, and Potsie Weber. How they behaved--well how "cool" they were dictated what character they got to play. The highest level they could ever achieve was Richie. Their parts, unlike Paul's and mine, were not secure however. Say something stupid and "Richie" would get demoted to Ralph. Do something completely "uncool" and guess what? You're a Potsie.

Potsie/Ponzie --either way you're bound to feel pretty stupid.

It just makes sense

Ever since I rear-ended a guy in a truck with my father's car (when I was sixteen) I've thought about bumpers.

Wouldn't it make more sense if car bumpers all had to be the same height off the ground? Isn't that what a bumper is? For bumping? Every time I see in my rear view mirror a lifted truck bearing down on me I think about this. What good is his bumper (I say he because 90% of the time it is a male driver in one of those--but not always) going to do? It would probably assist in decapitating me I suppose.

When gas was at $4, I came up with the plan for Flagstaff that we just have a fleet of bumper cars for in-town driving. How fun would that be? We could have convertible bumper cars, truck bumper cars, station wagon...whatever. All of them would belong to the city--so you just have to borrow one to get from place to place. We'd have big parking lots for personal vehicles for when you leave town--and some roads would be gas-power friendly. Wouldn't you want to visit Flagstaff if you knew you could drive around in bumper cars all day? We would eliminate road rage altogether--and I wouldn't have to worry about being decapitated.

Simple Priorities

So in case you've been under a rock for the past....oh year or so, our economy is in the landfill. The outlook is not good. If you've got a job...give thanks.

The state of Arizona has found itself to be $1.6 billion in the red. Yikes. So now that our intelligent governor, Janet Napolitano, is gone--her replacement (who doesn't have a college degree by the way) and her friends in the legislature have crafted a plan to reduce the deficit. So what do we cut here in Arizona --a state that ranked 48th or 49th in funding for K-12 schools and was ranked as number 50 in Morgan Quitno's 2006-2007 "Smartest State" rankings? Why education of course! If you're already at the bottom I guess you have no worries right? So the geniuses in the statehouse are cutting $142 million to university funding and $133 million to K-12. What does that mean? Well teachers I know say it means no "cost of living" raises for this year and their jobs are not secure (not to mention cuts to field trips, books, and other supplies).

At the climbing gym last night we had a short conversation with our friend Robert Kelty. Robert is sort of a local celebrity because he was Teacher of the Year for Arizona in 2008. It was an unusual choice because Robert is an elementary school teacher and it was only his 2nd (or 3rd) year teaching in the AZ school system. That says a lot about what a great teacher he is.

Anyway, Robert is the new kid on the block at his school. If his school is forced to lay off teachers--guess who gets to go?? Robert is not worried--hell, he could likely easily get a job in any other state--but really?